Growing vegetables when there is little water

Growing vegetables in dry conditions – in areas of low rainfall or during the dry season – can present problems. Because of this, local production is usually low and the market value is high. Try vegetables such as tomatoes, kale, onions, and suitable local crops. Here are some tips for growing vegetables when water is scarce. The diagrams show all the different stages.

• Help the soil to store water
• Make contour barriers

Make sure that, as far as possible, every drop of rain that falls has the chance to enter the soil. If you are growing vegetables on sloping land, stop any rain, throughout the year, from running away over the soil surface by making contour barriers.

Use grass strips, hedges, walls, ditches, ridges, lines of crop waste – anything at all to help the water to soak into the soil.

Squeeze test